Comments on the European Commission’s Draft Proposal for a Council Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations (Hamburg Group for Private International Law)

ROYAL INSTITUE OF TECHNOLOGY Abstract Laser Physics Group Department of Applied Physics SA104X Degree Project in Engineering Physics, First Cycle Fiber Bragg Gratings in Temperature and Strain Sensors by Ilian Haggmark Supervisor: Michael Fokine A Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) is a periodic variation of the refractive index in an optic ber. It works as a wavelength selective lter and is used in several dierent applications such as telecommunication and sensor technology. Fiber sensors are based on a simple principle; the ber is aected by strain, temperature etc. due to which the selection of wavelengths in the FBG change. With an optical spectrum analyzer the changes in wavelength reection can be observed and converted to the physical quantity measured. In this thesis the properties of FBGs used in temperature and strain sensors are tested. Experiments to improve the precision of the sensors by embedding FBGs in metal are also carried out.KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOGSKOLAN Sammanfattning Laserfysikgruppen Institutionen for Tillampad Fysik SA104X Examensarbete inom Teknisk Fysik, Grundniva Fiberbraggitter i Temperatur- och Spanningssensorer av Ilian Haggmark Handledare: Michael Fokine Ett berbraggitter (FBG) ar en periodisk variation av brytningsindex i en optisk ber. FBG fungerar som ett vaglangdsselektivt lter och har era olika tillampningar inom bland annat telekomunikation och sensorerteknik. Fibersensorer bygger pa en enkel princip; bern paverkas av temperatur, spanning m.m. och da forandras ltreringen av vaglangder i FBG. Med en optisk spektrumanalysator kan forandringar i vaglangd registreras och konverteras till den storhet som mats. In detta examensarbete testas de egenskaper hos FBG som utnyttjas i temperatur- och spanningssensorer. Experiment for att forbattra precisionen hos sensorerna genom att gjuta in FBG i metall utfors ocksa

Does Brexit Spell the Death of Transnational Law?

The British leave vote in the referendum on EU membership has important implications for how we think about law . The vote must be viewed as a manifestation of a globalized nationalism that we find in many EU member states and many other countries. As such, it is also a challenge of the idea of transnational law, forcefully introduced in Jessup’s book on Transnational law 60 years ago. In this paper, I suggest that the hope to return from transnational law to the nation state of the 19th century is nostalgic and futile. However, I argue that transnational law has its own nostalgia, carried over from the postwar period and no longer appropriate for our times. Transnational law, I argue, has become an elitist project. In order to remain fruitful, it must take serious the pleas of those who feel left out from it

Empagran’s Empire: International Law and Statutory Interpretation in the US Supreme Court of the 21st Century

In its Empagran decision in 2004, the US Supreme Court decided that purchasers on foreign markets could not invoke US antitrust law even against a global cartel that affects also the United States. The article, forthcoming in a volume dedicated to the history on international law in the US Supreme Court, presents three radically different readings of the opinion. The result is that Empagran is a decision that is transnationalist in rhetoric, isolationist in application, and hegemonial in its effect. A decision with a seemingly straightforward argument is found riddled in the conflict between these different logics. A decision with few references to international law displays deep links to some of the most pressing international law issues. A decision with a forward‑looking globalization rhetoric finds itself mired in history. A decision praising harmony displays somber parallels to decisions refusing interference with the evil of slave trade. This has implications for our understanding of international law today, and for its place in its own history. Paul Stephan has responded to the essay: http://ssrn.com/abstract=155987

Global Problems in Domestic Courts

We face an increasing number of problems that are essentially global in nature because they affect the world in its entirety: global cartels, climate change, crimes against humanity; to name a few. These problems require world courts, yet world courts in the institutional sense are largely lacking. Hence, domestic courts must function, effectively, as world courts. Given the unlikelihood of effective world courts in the future, our challenge is to establish under what conditions domestic courts can play this role of world courts effectively and legitimately

Book Review

Reviewing, Rethinking the Masters of Comparative Law, (Annelise Riles ed., Hart Publishing 2001

How Asian Should Asian Law Be? – An Outsider’s View

Is there an Asian identity of Asian law, comparable to European identity and therefore similarly useful as a justification for unification projects? If so, what does it look like? And if so, does this make Asia more like Europe, or less so? Or is this question itself already a mere European projection? This chapter tries to address such questions. In particular, I look at a concrete project of Asian law unification—the Principles of Asian Comparative Law—and connect discussions about its Asian identity with four concepts of Asia. The first such concept is a European idea of Asia and Asian law, which defines a presumably homogeneous Asia on the basis of its level of difference from Europe. The next three concepts are concepts that emerged from Asian debates. Two off them explicitly invoke leadership of one country. A sinocentric concept of Asian law attempts to reinvigorate concepts from the time of Chinese dominance of East Asia prior to colonization. A Japanese concept of Pan-Asian law by contrast is built on Japanese modernization, which in turn was influenced by Europe. Finally, the idea of Asian values attempts to avoid leadership by any one country in favor of a truly Asian identity. None of these three chapters can fully avoid the central problems of the European projection: they are all defined by their relation to the West, and all of them invoke a relative degree of homogeneity as basis for identity. I close, therefore, with an alternative concept of Asia “as method” that attempts to overcome these two shortcomings and may offer a more promising path towards an idea of Asian law

EU Law as Private International Law? Re-Conceptualising the Country-Of-Origin Principle as Vested Rights Theory

One of the most pertinent issues in contemporary European conflict of laws is the tension between Community law and traditional choice of law rules. The biggest problem comes not from the transposition of member state rules on choice of law into methodologically comparable EC Regulations, but rather from the so-called country-of-origin principle. This principle holds, broadly, that EU member states may not impose obligations on a provider of goods and services that go beyond the obligations imposed by the provider\u27s home state. Originally conceived mainly with public law obligations in mind, the principle has an impact on choice of law insofar as it bars member states from applying their own law to the provider\u27s conduct, even if they have the closest connections to this conduct. The exact relationship between the so called country of origin principle, and private international law, has long puzzled scholars and courts. Yet attempts at explanation and reconciliation have so far been unsuccessful because they started from an inappropriately narrow understanding of private international law. Integrating comparative legal history, this paper proposes a broader understanding of private international law beyond the current post-Savignyan approach. Thus broader approach makes it possible to recognize how the country of origin principle is remarkably similar to an almost forgotten and universally rejected private international law approach - the vested rights theory. The article demonstrates the parallels between the country of origin principle and US, English, French and German historical versions theories of vested rights. This insight presents an interesting challenge. The vested rights theory is now universally rejected because the criticism brought forward against it was and is felt to be irrefutable. One might think the same criticism would be able to bring the country of origin principle down, too. Indeed, the article shows how current criticism of the country of origin principle replicates to a large degree earlier criticism made against the vested rights theory. Remarkably, however, it shows also that the country of origin principle can refute the criticism. The return of vested rights, and its regained ability to overcome seemingly irrefutable criticism, hold a broader lesson. The rise and fall (and rebirth) of private international law approaches depends less on abstract considerations and more on general ideas and ideologies of the times - in this case, economic liberalism